Josh Kerr goes home DEFEATED

Did you expect him to cry in front of everyone?

You can only be happy with what is achieved.

I’ll watch later, but he was a lot happier with his races throughout last year than I was, and you/others were saying his indifferent performances all the way to Worlds weren’t a big deal. Today was fine, but there’s a lot of work to be in a place to medal.

Exactly. He knows he's got 2 months to sharpen. He'll be ahead of Katir in the finals.

Gjert you mean?

If you don't offer any substantiation to your assertion, your post adds nothing valuable to the thread. It does tell us more about you than about the runners you referenced. Do better.

Easy answer: Sandnes.

I actually think Kerr is doing ok. Running 3:30.0 in the first 1500 of the season two months out from Worlds is not a bad place to be for a proven medal contender. Jakob looks invincible this year but the other podium spots are seemingly wide open, and I don’t see any reason to bet against the guy who was 3rd and 5th in the last two finals just because he was 9th today. I’m not saying he’ll medal but I think his chances are about as good as anyone else’s.

Hocker will be tough in a championship (slow) final. Should beat others in a late dash. Teare will run 5k, where he belongs.

He was 5th last year but he was .7 off a medal and now of course it’s gotten deeper with new challengers (Nuguse, reinvigorated Tim, Nordas, Habz, Reynold et al). Josh has very strong self-belief - he thinks he can be in a hole vs his competition as he is now and train harder/flex his superior talent to beat them in the championship races. I certainly won’t say that is definitely wrong, but the degree of difficulty is high unless the talent/training difference is vast. British champs should be a good test to see if he’s beating Gourley or scrapping for the win or edging out Mills, Giles etc.

Considering he just beat Gourley (who has had a career year thus far) by .8, I don’t think Kerr is going to have any trouble at British champs. And not to be a d1ck, but Mills and Giles aren’t even on the same planet.

I’d be worried about his performance today if Budapest was 2 weeks away, not 2 months. Again, not saying he will medal, but I think he’ll be competitive. It seems way too early to write him off at this point.

Do you realize how wide the margin for error is when you're in a 3:30 or faster race? You have to be perfect on the day, like an Olympic final. A small lapse on the mental side or just a less than perfect physical performance is more material in terms of impact as you approach world record pace. Kerr could very well be in 3:28 fitness, but you have to be in 3:28 fitness for the entire 3 minutes and 28 seconds. You can't slip up, and inevitably, all runners slip up (see Jakob 1,500 at Worlds). Kerr is annoying, frankly, but you're acting like he just ran 3:35 or something. Dude ran 3:30 flat, a second off his PR, just didn't have the gear on the day for the final lap.

Tactical, championship race vs a time trial. Gourley has historically outperformed at British Champs. Not writing Kerr off, just being realistic that all the athletes in mid-3:29s today could easily rationalize being in better position to medal than Kerr.

Norway.

We have that in common.

I'm not so much critiquing his time, so much as his attitude. You'd think Mr. '3:27 high shape' would place much better than 9th even in a tactical race. As I said before, he's all bark and no bite. Gets showed up by Jakob every time they race, out of the 10 times they've raced, he's only won once. And it was last year's World Champs in the heats, where I doubt Jakob wanted nothing more than to qualify for the next round. Jakob's 'bad day' was a silver against Jake Wightman, that would be Kerr's greatest performance yet. Point is, he should run his legs more than his mouth. Have to hold him accountable.

Kerr seemed pretty confident to me that he would come good at WC, not to mention his first race was a great start to the season.

He said the same thing last year. But the color of his medal is the same as my ferrari, in that neither of us got one.

Of those, only Nuguse and Tim are relevant. There's always a few guys like Habz and Nordas who run something ridiculous on the circuit but aren't real medal threats, and I don't think Reynauld will manage the rounds at Worlds.

The 1500 is going to be the most difficult event to medal in this year. Jakob will cruise to gold sot hat leaves two medals between maybe 8-9 guys. Right now, Katir and Nuguse must be favourites for the minor medals with Katir's strength placing him closer to Jakob than the others. But I doubt Kerr will be worried at opening up with 3:30. What does concern me is that he doesn't seem to have the devastating last 300 that he had in 2021.

You also have to factor in Kerr's volatility. This is a guy who barely scraped through British champs in a year when he ran 3:30 for 5th at WC. A guy who only got to the Olympic final as fastest loser after a disastrous semi, and somehow still managed to turn it all around and pulled out a bronze medal (very nearly silver if the race had been about 50cm longer).

I'd be much more concerned about his medal chances if he didn't have a documented history of pulling exceptional performances out of thin air.

It's possible he just knows when to peak and go all-out. Still, for someone who chooses to race like that. He SHOULD NOT try to play the Jakob Charisma. Because even though he was a Bronze Medal, a majority (If not all) of his wins in races tend to be against sub-elite or guys with PBs less than his own. Even his great 3:48 Indoor Mile was pretty much setup for him to win it.

Regardless, if him settling for 3rd or 5th is a 'win'. I don't really consider him a 'winner'.

Mr. 3:27 would-be